“We have a new location for The Raw Vegan Village that is going to be much more appealing to all of you who want a warmer climate! It is going to be in Ojai, California! This is where we currently reside. It is in the sun belt with an all-year-round growing season. We just met with one of the leading builders in the green industry, who Storm has known for over 30 years, who is going to help us develop this village.

Ojai has been designated by Ventura County to become the model green town in America. It is already a raw food mecca. Because we have support from the county we will be eligible for lots of grants and subsidies which will allow us to be sensitive to people who don’t have millions of dollars but still want to live in an eco-friendly house.

Ojai is a beautiful little mountain community surrounded by national forest on three sides. It is full of orange and avocado groves, is 15 minutes from the ocean, and has a town center with all local business owners and no corporate presence.” -Jinjee (one of the people trying to organize this).
So they want to build a village, but also, they can just build individual, eco-friendly houses.

The houses will probably be selling from around $300 000-500 000. Expensive, yes. But I think it will be worth it in so many ways. Here is what they are planning for the houses,
“There will be no wood in it. Much of the wood used in houses has been treated with pesticides that leach toxins into our living space on a daily bases. Over time it has a long term effect on our health and the health of our children.It will have a abundance of natural lighting. This will be achieved through floor to roof windows and fiber optic lighting fixtures. The walls will be a combination of polyfoam, rebar, and concrete. This will insure the highest level of insulation. It will also create a house that is earthquake and fire proof.The floors will be bamboo – a renewable fast-growth material that can be made to look similar to hard-wood flooring. The interior paints and surfaces will be non-toxic. The tiles and counters will be non-toxic sustainable materials that are also beautiful and elegant.
The moment that you build a traditional wooden frame house it starts
to deteriorate. Even though the average house has about 100 gallons
of chemical pesticides soaked into the soil prior to pouring of the
concrete foundation. The main one being Chlordane which is a primary
termite prevention pesticide. They are just now starting to do
studies that link Chlordane to cancer. The type of construction that
we will be doing can easily last 1,000 years. With this new type of polysteel construction no wood is used. Instead we will be using renewable bamboo and hemp products. This will allow us to create hardwood-style floors without clear-cutting forest. We will be using clay ceramic baked bricks and tiles as finishing materials and we will incorporate the use of state of the art glass
windows throughout the design. We will also use the latest technology
in fiber-optic lighting so no electric lights will be necessary during
daylight hours. The house will make extensive use of leading edge
solar technology breakthroughs so that the house can be built totally
off of the grid or if connected to the grid the meter will run
backwards.”

So…obviously the house is extremely eco-friendly. There would be a school, a farmer’s market, a spa, a retreat (for those who just want to come for vacation), organic farms and orchards, a yoga studio, a restaurant/juice bar, and a whole lot more! They also are thinking of having a renting option open for those who aren’t ready to commit to anything long-term, and also, students can come to live there temporarily to work on the organic farms/orchards/farmers market (in their own little dorms on the outskirts of the village) There will be horses stables too, for you animal lovers.
I am certainly going to buy a house there when I finish school. I can’t think of a better place to live my life and raise my children. I always have known that I would have to move to a tropical/warm place when I settle down with a family, it would make it so much easier to find fresh and organic fruits and vegetables. But it would be so hard to raise children in this kind of society. They would be raised with raw vegan beliefs of course, but that would all just clash with what they are learning at school/play—basically what they would be seeing everyday in the world around them. Raw veganism isn’t just a diet—it’s a whole new philosophy on life, a whole new lifestyle. And I’m sure that we can all admit this is one way or another…being a raw vegan in this society is HARD! There is a lack of understanding, it’s hard to connect with people, it’s hard to go out to eat, so many temptations and cravings because of the SAD food constantly surrounding us, so difficult to find fresh fruits and veggies, organic fruits and veggies, when buying a product, we always have to think, “Is it really raw?”. And it’s a nightmare trying to find eco-friendly clothes and other materials…I have to ship it in, which is expensive and hard on the earth. The air, at least where I live, is absolutely filthy. You really begin to feel as though you are living within a sea of brainwashed fools.
Sounds absolutely beautiful….I cannot even wait to be in such a beautiful environment, around such beautiful people and creatures, such delicious food everywhere….
Of course, I would probably still take the time to travel quite a bit. I’m afraid I’m not the kind of person that can offically settle into one place…I love to explore the world.
But this would be home.

I would be worried about raising kids here…I don’t want my kids to grow up sheltered in a raw vegan school, with raw vegan friends, etc. I want them to have the opportunity to interact with all kinds of different people, instead of isolating them in a raw vegan village…they would inevitably experience a HUGE culture shock going out into the rest of the world, kind of like those Amish kids that go out into the wolrd at 16 and turn into meth addicts because they don’t know how to handle all the new things around them.
That said, I do think this is a step in the right direction for man. I wouldn’t consider living there I don’t think, but it would be a nice place to visit.

It would be nice if they had a hotel. It could create added revenue for the community and expose more people to the lifestyle.

I agree with elizabethh that it would be isolating for the kids. I was looking up vegan communities as a possibility, but many of them had the requirement that I join a communal homeschool or that my kid go to the school on site. I’m not going to do that, so that option is out the window for me.

I wonder what would happen if you wanted to bring in cooked foods for some reason. Maybe a friend came to the housewarming with muffins. I wonder if that would fall under homeowner association rules.

Elizabethh, I’m with you. I’ve run into so many extremely dogmatic folks in their approach to raw that this place would scare me to death! I just do raw because i feel great. It’s not my religion and this would seem very “cultish” to me. Obviously, an island would be better for me! LOL.

Well I’m sure this is a trial run. Like many things the first attempt may not be perfect but with positive thoughtful input from people who understand why they would want to do this. I think they could make a village with a happy medium meeting a common group of needs that the general feel would be beneficial for man woman and child and even the pets of the families and people living there. I agree it could be a bit shelterish. I would assume they wouldnt consider some people don’t naturally go 100% pure in their lifestyle. I do like the concept of picking an area optimal for growing and sustaining vegetation and it would create a more natural pure feel but at the same rate giving people the chance to learn something new and yet still be apart of society in general. So let’s all stay positive and maybe we can write the people some ideas to help out if they decide to make a second one. I do however feel the cost is a bit extreme for a complex of a simpler nature.

Chris,
The extreme cost is mostly due to it being in California. We’ve been looking at houses lately and even with prices dropping, the cheapest 2-bedroom houses are about $600,000 in my area. The cheapest 2-bedroom condo is about $375,000 and there are monthly HOA dues of approx. $600 on top of that. I think the raw vegan village is moderately priced.

this is interesting,and i recently visited ojia on a lark, it is a nice small community i they truelly have a develper helping them they should have less trouble getting the permits to build…its difficult to get permits when you are a private home owner! the other thing one must consider as well here in dear old CA is the fires….for my taste ojai is to hard to get in and out of safetly if there was a major fire!

another is that “intentional communities” are becoming very popular. “the last hours of ancient sunlight” talks about the benefits of living in such communities. it doesn’t mean you are blocked off from the rest of the world. it means you have a hand in creating everything you are using. intentional communities gather around one MISSION or BELIEF, but they also have private lives. the idea of buying a big plot of land is to protect it from unsustainable development. security in numbers.

i’m not sure it’s for me either, but i thought i’d present the “non-commune” pov.

i think it sounds really cool, except, there are several different kinds of raw foodists, and the village being exclusively raw vegan, seems well, exclusive. i think we are a small enough group as is. why alienate someone because they might want to have a goat or a cow to make milk or cheese. sorry if i offend anyone. some raw foodists even eat raw meat, i do not, but i think raw dairy and honey are nutricious foods.
the cost of the housing seems high, although i know california is very expensive. i’ve seen green homes for as little as $90,000 advertised in canada.
living in an eco village would be nice, surrounding yourself with like minded people is great, but calling it a “raw vegan village” leaves no room for diversity, and personally i don’t want someone telling me what i can eat.
hope this makes sense.

Actually, around 200 people are really interested in living in a raw vegan village.
Here’s an update:
“Ojai Raw Vegan Village Site Found!

I can’t honestly believe that land such as this is for sale in Ojai! The land we saw yesterday was 117 acres of incredibly beautiful national forest! – A dream! We hiked from our car down a trail which was beautiful itself, to the river, and hiked back up the river, – even dipped in it! The river is amazing. One series of little waterfalls after another the whole way up the river, these big beautiful boulders, no other houses in sight, sage brush, California oaks, wildflowers, pristine powerful nature.

I imagined my children playing in the river all day. Whatever children end up on this land will have an enchanted childhood, no matter what else happens. The view from the river is the majestic Topa Topa mountains. Incredible! And this property is nestled into the Los Padres national forest, so you could hike in almost any direction for days and still be in wilderness!

There are three parcels. Three main homes can be built, each on 30 acres. A guest house and a barn could additionally be built on each property. A road needs to be built. Permits obtained. A year of red tape and money. A small price to pay for paradise! Room for orchards; avocado, orange, apricot, walnut! Rich dark soil,—wild soil! – for gardens of the most nutrient dense food we’ll ever eat! This is soil that came from the Topa Topa’s, like that which has nourished us for years through the nearby farms we buy our food from. Yet this is new earth! – never farmed before.

We want to buy this land and build three green dream homes. These will be unearthly beautiful. This will be for people who want total privacy and seclusion and yet to be in close proximity to the Raw Vegan Village, just a few miles from this land.

The actual Raw Vegan Village will be on 40 acres in upper Ojai with the most majestic, dramatic, incredible views I’ve ever seen – honestly. This could be the site of the K-12 school for raw vegan kids. We are talking to the realtor today, but I believe we can build five homes on this land so it could be the Raw Vegan Village Center. We envision one investor buying this land and running it as a business, with rental units, gardens, a school, and a retreat. This will allow many people to come and participate in the village.

We are ready to speak with people who want to buy a dream green home on the river in Ojai. We are also ready to speak with anyone who wants to invest in the Raw Vegan Village as a business.” -Jinjee

This sounds amazing and awesome, but one thing… my mom is a type of doctor, where would she work? Do they have like lots of jobs and stuff available and stuff?? Please correct me if I’m wrong but there was no mention of plenty of jobs. But for teachers and massage therapists it’s great!

I heard about this a while ago and I love the idea it sounds like a commun to me. My college reminds me of it’s feel because of the close linked community that cares both about wellness and the environment.